


The Look Behind Matching Shades

by PennamePersona



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Family Feels, Gen, Spoilers for Meat Timeline, Supportive Dave Strider, The Homestuck Epilogues, Trans Male Character, Trans Roxy Lalonde, supportive family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 22:28:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21876511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PennamePersona/pseuds/PennamePersona
Summary: “I need your help.” Roxy says. It feels almost shameful to say, somehow.“Of course.” Dave says, immediately. “You didn’t even need to ask. Or, well, I guess you did need to ask, or I wouldn’t have known that you needed anything at all, I just mean - ”OrDave Strider is hardcore supportive of the people he cares about, and that absolutely, 100% includes his trans not-mom.
Relationships: Background - Calliope/Roxy Lalonde, Background - Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Roxy Lalonde & Dave Strider
Kudos: 56
Collections: Twitterstuck Secret Santa 2019





	The Look Behind Matching Shades

**Author's Note:**

  * For [marykdoodles](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=marykdoodles).



> This is for @marykdoodles, who I couldn't find on Twitter and who hopefully will still find this work!! The prompt was "I would like a fanfiction (or comic! Either is fine!) Centering around Roxy and Dave. Specifically them (Meat timeline) talking about family stuff and/or identity stuff and supporting each other. Other characters appearing are all fine and dandy, but Roxy and Dave should be the focus of the narrative."

Roxy sits outside Dave’s door and waits. In all honesty, they (he?) aren’t entirely sure what he (they?) is waiting for. 

Then Dave opens the door to the home he and Karkat have made together and jumps.

“Roxy, what the fuck?” He asks, hand clutched to his chest in a way that seems equal parts dramatic effect and a genuinely startled response. 

Roxy waves, feeling mostly not-awkward, though the meter for that is changing rapidly.

“Can I come in?” They (he?) ask. Dave doesn’t even hesitate to open the door wider and gestures for them to follow him back inside.

The living area isn’t the prettiest or the cleanest, to be sure. The space Roxy and Callie share is far better arranged and more well-kept, but Roxy can clearly see a similar level of love underlying every bit of debris in the ostensible bachelor pad Dave and Karkat live in. It makes his (their?) chest feel a bit lighter, which is exactly what they (he?) were hoping for.

“So what’s up?” Dave asks, flopping down onto the couch. “You never just show up unannounced. You’re totally welcome to, this isn’t me complaining, I just don’t really know what to expect here.”

“Remember that phone call a little while ago?” Roxy asks. Their voice cracks, which feels almost funny. “About coming out and shit?”

Dave just nods, quiet like he so rarely is, obviously ready to give Roxy all of his attention. The lightness in Roxy’s chest has gained some tightness beside it, and Roxy has to focus for a minute on not tearing up at Dave’s easy, caring nature, so rarely shown for what it is.

“I need your help.” Roxy says. It feels almost shameful to say, somehow.

“Of course.” Dave says, immediately. “You didn’t even need to ask. Or, well, I guess you did need to ask, or I wouldn’t have known that you needed anything at all, I just mean - ”

Roxy lets Dave go on his tangent for a while and slowly breathes, until a small smile can bloom on his face.

He doesn’t say thank you just yet.

* * *

Dave walks into the hospital cafeteria and sighs.

He does not sigh because the cafeteria’s lights seem to instantly sharpen his headache (though they do) or because all of the food looks pasty and wilted, even the stuff that shouldn’t be able to look pasty or wilted (though it does) or even because he’s just feeling very emotional and doesn’t know how to handle a lot of the ways it feels to be here right now (though he is definitely, absolutely feeling all of that).

He sighs because, at the end of one of the tables, completely alone and picking listlessly at some truly garbage macaroni and cheese, is Roxy.

Dave shoves his hands into his pockets and slides across the table from him, doing his best to give Roxy a Look between both of their shades.

“Hey, Dave…” Roxy says, tossing up the most half-hearted attempt at finger guns that Dave has ever seen in literally his entire life. This includes the time that Jake attempted to finger gun his way out of people being concerned about his health when he had the flu, like,  _ really  _ badly last year. The poor son of a bitch was paler than Dirk when he gets stuck building shitty robots and forgets to be out in the sunlight for months, which is always.

“I thought you were going back home?” Dave asks, crossing his arms on the table. “Man, you know I hate being the responsible one, but you can’t just live at the hospital. The food is awful.”

Roxy lets his finger guns droop and instead leans his head into one hand. 

“I know I should go home.” He says. His hand is nudging at his shades, pushing them sideways just enough that Dave can see the dark circles under his eyes. “It’s just...Callie’s so strung up right now, and I know that when I get home, they’re gonna be panicky about how I’ve just been with Jade and I could be bringing some horrible Thing back home with me, and I want them to feel comfy and safe at home, I really do, but they haven’t left in like forever and I’m starting to get worried and - ”

“Whoa there, hold up.” Dave says, putting one hand up to show that he means it. “Take a deep breath, dude.”

Roxy takes a shuddering breath in, and the subtle shaking of his hand shows Dave that he clearly didn’t expect just breathing to be so hard.

Dave taps his fingers on the table for a minute, and then steels himself to just go on and say what needs to be said. “I’m not the most emotionally aware person around, so you’ve gotta take all this with more than just a grain of salt. Take it with, like, a whole ass salt lick. We’ll go out and find a dairy farm and huddle around the mass of white salty goodness and lathe our tongues around it with our bovine bros for a while, and then I’ll bestow upon you and the cows some solid emotional wisdom, and then we’ll lick the salt again until it becomes clear that I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Roxy, man, you don’t have to face all this shit alone. I know you’re worried about Callie and you don’t want to get in their way with shit, but trying to avoid all that by sticking around in a shitty hospital with lights that are, I swear, made for giving people migraines, ain’t gonna help. I know it’s freaky, dude. Trust me. But you’re tough. You’re probably the toughest guy I know, emotionally speaking. And you’ve got people to help. I know Kanaya’s dealing with a lot of shit right now, but she cares about you and Callie for sure. Karkat might not always know what to say, but he’s supportive as shit and I know the dude would walk on coals for any of his friends, which absolutely includes you and Callie. And Rox, my dude, my main man, best guy ever, masculine-presenting person of the year, I know you know I’m in your corner.”

Dave hesitates for a half-second, and then reaches out to put one of his hands on top of Roxy’s. He hears Roxy sniffle a bit, and squeezes his hand. Roxy squeezes back immediately, absolutely incapable of leaving a bro hanging in an emotional moment.

“Thanks, Dave.” Roxy says, quietly. His voice still cracks a bit. “I know all that probably wasn’t so easy for you to say.”

“Nah, I can word vomit with the best of them. Ain’t no thing.” Dave says, waving his free hand in the air in an attempt to dismiss Roxy’s concern and any focus on himself. He meant every word he said (except maybe the extended metaphor about cows and salt licks), but that doesn’t make it easy to sit with the kind of single-minded attention that Roxy’ll put on a person. The dude is so fuckin’ good at caring for his friends that it’s spooky sometimes.

“It is a thing.” Roxy says, but they don’t push it. “Thanks. Also, wow, it’s super sweet and supportive, but you don’t have to use masculine terms every other sentence to validate me.”

“I just want you to know that I support you!” Dave says, smiling, because yeah, he figured maybe he was going overboard.

Roxy smiles back, and though Dave can tell it’s a bit frayed at the edges, mostly it really does look genuine.

“What if I came back with you?” Dave asks, surprising himself a bit even as he says it. “Would that make it easier, or would Callie get more freaked?”

Roxy thinks about it for a moment, chewing lightly on his lower lip.

“Um, I think it might make them nervous, but honestly the company would be really great for me.” Roxy shoves his shades up into his hair, tangling the strands in a way that has Dave wincing in sympathy. “I’m just really tired, Dave.”

Dave nods, squeezing his hand again. “I know, Rox. Lemme just text Karkat to let him know where I’ll be, and then we can head out.”

Roxy squeezes in response and stands up, grabbing his leftover, plastic-y macaroni and cheese and holding it gently at the edges before throwing it in the trash with what looks like vicious confidence.

Dave pulls out his phone and shoots off a quick text to Karkat, telling him that he’s going to be home late, possibly not at all, and then following that up with a half dozen more texts explaining specifically that he’s going over to Roxy and Callie’s and not to wait up.

“Alright man, let’s get going.” He calls to Roxy, clicking his phone off and shoving it back into his pocket. He can see exhaustion in the way that Roxy’s standing and doesn’t even want to guess how long he’s been here. He loves Roxy a lot, really and truly, and can’t help but respect how much energy Roxy puts towards the people he cares about. That said, he’d give a whole fuckin’ lot to shove Roxy out of the “must do everything possible to ensure that everyone feels okay, even at my own expense” cage he’s been keeping himself in for maybe his whole fuckin’ life. 

Roxy gives him a thumbs up and tries to smoothly slide his shades back down, but they’ve become just tangled enough in his hair that moving them also causes several strands to get snagged in the sides of the frames, earning a small yelp that Dave lovingly files away as “deeply manly”.

“That gets easier with time.” He says, giving Roxy as honest a smile as he can manage. “Don’t worry, you still look cool as hell.”

Roxy smiles back and tosses his head to the side, clearly dramatizing a hair flip that isn’t quite possibly with his current length. 

“Thanks, Dave.” He says softly, voice cracked with emotion and exhaustion and the horrible throat-feel of eating hospital cafeteria macaroni and cheese.

Roxy doesn’t tack on “for everything”, but (despite some popular and loud opinions) Dave is more than capable of picking up on that sort of subtext. He glances sideways at Roxy as they walk out together and does what he can to keep his expression honest.

“Of course.” He says, pushing his own shades up for a moment to catch Roxy’s eye directly. “There wasn’t ever another option.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was a lot of fun to write, I really enjoy family dynamics and I'm a sucker for Strilonde family dynamics in particular. And I really really like getting to do stuff with trans characters!!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it, @marykdoodles! Happy Holidays & Happy Candlenights to all!


End file.
